Tuesday 2 October 2007 04.39 EDT
First published on Tuesday 2 October 2007 04.39 EDT

Gone to the dogs? Sputnik. Photograph: Marc Garanger/Corbis

Good news for all you wannabe astronauts: the latest instalment of our weekly science and technology podcast, Science Weekly, is a space special.

Half a century after the launch of Sputnik, we take the time to look over the rise, fall - and perhaps the return of - the space race. And to help us through the murky politics and headstrong engineering behind the for the stars, we're joined by Dr Chris Welch from Kingston University's Spaceweb programme.

Elsewhere, we briefly discuss Halo 3 and eat some freeze dried astronaut's ice cream. All human life is here... click here to listen now, or head over to the podcast blog for more details on subscribing.